Thursday, March 13, 2014

Art Retreat Weekend - Part 1

Hi Everyone! I recently had the absolute pleasure of spending a wonderful weekend with a fantastic group of creative gals at the Nurture Your Creative Seed art retreat on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle. We were submerged in art and all things mixed media for an entire weekend - it was amazing!

The retreat was hosted by the lovely Serena, who seriously has a gift for organizing creative events and making everyone feel so relaxed and comfortable. This is my second year attending one of Serena's retreats, and hopefully not the last!

On the way to the retreat, I met up with my friend Cindy, who I had the pleasure of getting to know at last year's retreat. We took the ferry from Seattle over to Bainbridge Island, about a 30 minute ride. The day was overcast (so Seattle!), but we got to see an amazing view of the city shoreline from the ferry.

The first night, we all got to know each other over a delicious meal in town. It was so much fun to be around such a creative group of ladies, who had put their fears aside and traveled in from all around the country to spend time making art.

Classes on the first day were taught by Junelle Jacobsen, who is such an inspiring mixed media artist. We started the day doing sketching exercises, which we then translated into watercolor paintings.

The weather was absolutely beautiful on the first day, so after a break for lunch, we spent time soaking up some much needed sunshine at a local harbor area. The views were spectacular and it was great to be outside and see some signs of spring.

After our harbor visit, we went back to the studio and Junelle taught us how to make mixed media wood blocks using lots of yummy paints and papers.

Here's a group shot of all the blocks everyone created in class. I just love seeing them all together - seriously, what a talented group of ladies!!!

Have you signed up for Junelle's new Saturday Morning Wood Block class? It just started and there's still time to join in - these little blocks are so much fun to make and Junelle is such an inspiring teacher!

As if that wasn't enough, we had another whole day of creating to look forward to with this amazing gal. I'll be back soon to tell you about all the fun we had on the second day of classes - stay tuned!